The present invention generally relates to wireless sensor networks, and particularly, to a method and system for communicating with a plurality of sensor nodes using one or more instant messengers over a network.
In the present hectic schedule, remote monitoring of ambience in a given area is gaining importance as it may not be possible and feasible to monitor the ambience by being physically present in the given area at any point of time. To address such issues, in the prior art, a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that may be installed in the environment where the ambience needs to be monitored was introduced. The WSN is a collection of networked tiny electronic devices (herein also referred to as “sensor nodes”) that are capable of sensing, processing and communication information. These sensor nodes generally read ambience information from the surrounding environment and convert the information into one or more data packet(s). These data packets are processed and may then be transmitted to users via one or more base stations, using a wireless network.
A typical WSN may be monitored through various communication channels that include a standalone/desktop application, a web-based application or a mobile application.
In case of a standalone/desktop application, specialized software is used to visualize and monitor the sensor nodes in the WSN from the base station. Users may send commands using this software to tune the behavior of the sensor nodes to some extent. However, it requires the user to have expertise in using the specialized software.
In case of a web-based application, commands that are sent by the users to the application are routed to the sensor nodes in the WSN via the base station. However, this requires the user to authenticate the web-based application specifically to send commands to the sensor nodes. Further, a specific web-based application needs to be customized for monitoring the sensor nodes.
In case of a mobile application, users may send the query to the WSN to know the status of sensor nodes in the network. Though mobile applications (devices) have an interface to communicate with the WSN, they cannot be used to perform complex operations such as sending a new code to the sensor nodes in the network.
Collectively, these applications that are being used to control or monitor the sensors nodes in the WSN have one or more drawbacks. In the standard controller application, the desktop software installed on a particular machine needs to be accessed for controlling. The user needs to have domain knowledge in order to use the desktop application. The web-based applications have overcome this disadvantage by allowing users to access the application from anywhere, but restrict the users to desktops or mobiles. Similarly, the interface through mobile devices may provide access to WSN from anywhere. Though mobile devices have provided interface to communicate with WSN, they may not be used to perform complex operations like sending new code to the sensors nodes.
Thus, all the techniques mentioned above are associated with one or more problems and hence, there is a need for a new communication means which will allow the users to monitor or control the WSN, without the need to install any software, other than instant messenger, on their desktop computers or mobile devices. Further, the user should not have to customize the web-application to communicate with the WSN using the communication means. Finally, the communication means should not require the user to learn or have expertise in using specialized software for communicating with the WSN.